


We Can Make It 'Till The End

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Character Death, Crossover, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by The Walking Dead, M/M, Minor Character Death, canon AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: On their tour, things take a turn for the worse as the dead rise, and our beloved band members have to fight them to survive and protect themselves, as well as the ones they love. Also most of them are in love with each other, but we don't talk about that.Or,A One Direction/Walking Dead Crossover where they're smart in terms of survival but idiots in terms of love.
Relationships: Eleanor Calder/Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne/Danielle Peazer, Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1 - Pilot

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So I'm still relatively new to writing, but I hope you all really enjoy this work as much as I enjoyed writing it! This is kinda a tester to see if people like this idea or not, and if you guys do, I might write more and turns this into a series! Again, thank you so much for reading and giving this a chance!  
> ~ L

“Why do you always win everything?!”

“Nialler, you literally just kick the ball into the goal.”

Niall groans and crosses his arms in an attempt of a defiance while Louis just shakes his head, setting his gaming controller on his lap. “You were the one who suggested fifa.” he shrugs.

“But that’s cuz I thought you would let me win!” Niall whines.

“In your dreams, Irish.” Louis replies.

The pair continue to argue in front of the TV in the dinky little tour bus living room while little Lux sits next to the two of them, going into hysterics at the two of them bantering. From behind the small sofa, Harry looks on at the two boys fondly, Liam and Lou each on the other side of him.

Currently, they’re all on the road in their tour bus, heading to LA for their next show. They’re nearly finished with their first leg of the tour, which Harry is grateful for, but soon it’s back to even more travelling. Harry loves the fans and the thrill of it all, but sometimes it would be nice to just hang back a bit and just chill out.

“They’ve literally been playing for 5 minutes and are already fighting.” Lou says in mock disappointment.

“That’s our boys for ya.” Liam says.

“Yeah.” Harry sighs, watching as Niall once again is bested by Louis, throwing his head back in agony as Louis and Lux laugh at him, Louis’ brown, feathery hair falling in his face as his piercing blue eyes crinkle up in amusement.

“Still can’t wrap my head around why you like the short one.” Liam sleazily says, smirking at Harry.

Harry’s eyes go wide as he squawks and lightly hits Liam on the back of the head playfully. “He’s not short!”

“Aha, but you didn’t deny anything there, mate.” Liam shoots back.

“Liam!” Harry hisses, trying to quiet down his friend. “Lou, make him be quiet!”

“Well, I mean… He’s not wrong.” The hairdresser giggles out, laughing harder when Harry turns to her with an exasperated look on his face.

“You both are the worst.”

“Yet you still love us.” Liam sighs as Lou’s phone goes off.

“Oh, that’s my cue. Gotta get Lux to bed if she’s gonna get up at any reasonable time tomorrow.” Lou sighs, throwing a wink at Harry before walking over to where Lux is sitting, excusing herself with the other two boys as Lou picks her up and heads into the van to put Lux to bed.

Harry and Liam turn their attention back to Louis and Niall, who are now wrestling on the floor for the controller in Niall’s grasp, even though Louis has his discarded to the side. Harry feels himself subtly smile at the sight of his boys playing with each other.

Harry hears Liam sigh sadly beside him. “S’ a shame things can’t stay this way.”

Harry’s shoulders slump at the small little remark, and he spares a glance at Liam, who’s staring off with a somber expression.

“Have you talked to him yet?” Harry asks.

“No, he isn’t coming out of the room.” Liam replies, before turning to face Harry. “Haz, I’m worried. I’m scared. Even though he’s leaving us, it doesn’t mean he has to… You know…” Liam circles his hands around the room. “Leave us. It scares me that Zayn barely even talks to us anymore, unless we’re onstage.”

“He does talk to you sometimes.” Harry points out.

“Well yeah, I know.” Liam says. “I just don’t know why he’s doing this. I thought we would all stick with each other, through thick and thin. Yet there he goes, my best friend just.. Slipping away.”

Liam’s words hit Harry like bullets. He knows how close Liam and Zayn are. Since the beginning, on X Factor, they just clicked, they’ve had some special connection. And as the years went by, the little touches, kisses, teases, and everything that came with it just increased. Harry reaches an arm out to Liam’s shoulder, before pulling him into a big hug.

“I know mate, I know.” Harry mutters, rubbing Liam’s back comfortingly. “We can get through this though. The four of us will still be here.”

“Yeah, I know that.” Liam replies, sounding like he’s trying not to cry. “I just… wish things didn’t have to change.” Liam closes his eyes, taking a deep breath before locking eyes with Harry. “As selfish as it sounds, I don’t want him to leave. I miss him, and he isn’t even out of the band yet.”

And Harry understands everything Liam is saying, but right now he doesn’t think trying to respond to Liam will help in any way, so he just holds Liam in a hug again until Liam’s breathing evens out. Harry can’t imagine what Liam must be feeling. Zayn leaving the band, leaving Liam, would be the equivalent to Louis leaving Harry, and Harry doesn’t even want to think about that possibility. Harry glances over to where Louis is, wrestling on the floor of their tour bus with Niall, as if to make sure he doesn’t get any chance to try and leave.

Harry eventually feels Liam slightly push against him, so Harry lets go of Liam. “Better?”

“Yeah,” Liam assures. “Better. Thanks, mate. Just needed to get it all out.” Liam looks over to where their rooms are situated. “I’m gonna go see if Zayn wants to come out anyways. It isn’t good for him to stay in bed for so long.”

Harry chuckles and nods as Liam saunters off. Liam’s protective, motherly side is coming out yet again, it seems. It seems as though he’s taken a parental role of all the boys to keep them out of trouble. And Harry already knows how much of a struggle that role is, because boy, are they troublesome. Harry looks back over to Louis and Niall, who seem to have given up on their wrestling match and now have decided to continue their game like normal people.

“You’re only winning cuz we’re playing a game.” Niall states matter-of-factly. “You’d be on the ground crying if this were an actual soccer match.

Louis cackles loudly. “Mate, I might have to take you up on that offer. Cuz you are dead wrong.” Louis challenges.

“It’s a deal, then.” is all Niall says before turning his full attention back to the game, determined to win.

Harry chuckles at their little dispute before hearing a rather concerning conversation coming from the room behind him. Cautiously, Harry steps towards the wall separating him and the other room, trying to listen in. It sounds like Paul, as well as another voice that he recognizes as Louis’ “girlfriend”, Eleanor, though her voice is disoriented, as though as if it were over a radio.

“What are you talking about? Is everything okay?” Paul asks her.

Harry hears Eleanor respond back, her voice slightly shaky and panicked. “I-I don’t know. Government is saying that it’s some sort of disease outbreak, or whatever. I- I can’t tell you the details, but-”

“Then how do we know this is serious-?” Paul cuts in.

“Paul, I don’t know!” Eleanor cuts back in, exasperated. “But all I do know is that you have to get Louis and everyone else on that tour bus to the nearest airport and on the first plane out of here.”

“Are you serious?” Paul asks. “What about the tour? They have a concert later today-”

“Paul, I just need you to do what I’m telling you!” Eleanor shouts. “This isn’t some prank. There are people literally ea-”

“Harry!”

Harry snaps out of the conversation, turning his attention back over to Louis and Niall, who are looking at him expectantly. “I’m sorry, what was it that you said?” Harry asks.

Louis tuts. “Silly Harry, gotta pay attention next time.” Louis playfully reprimands. “I said, do you wanna play a round with me? It isn’t fun when you win every round.” Louis smirks when he sees Niall scoff and glare at him.

As much as Harry would like to, though, he needs to find out what Paul and Eleanor are talking about. “Uh, no thanks.” Harry dismisses with a wave of his hand, turning his attention back to the wall as Louis pouts behind him, and he tunes back into the conversation.

“You know, fine. I’ll do it. But what do I tell them?” Paul asks.

“Just- I don’t know, say that there’s some outbreak and they need to be back home asap for safety reasons.” Eleanor replies.

“What about you guys?”

“Hey.” Harry jumps at the voice behind him, whipping around to see Louis coming up to him. “Woah, easy there mate. Just wanted to see what you were up to.” Louis puts his hands up in a playful defence.

“Uh… Um.” Harry struggles to explain to Louis because really, how does he say it without being creepy? Yeah mate, just listening in on a private conversation that has nothing to do with me.

As Harry struggles to reply while Louis stares at him, a door opens, and Paul walks out of the room, immediately spotting Harry and Louis, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion at the two. “What are you two lovebirds doing?” Paul asks suspiciously.

Harry immediately blushes at that, but Louis seems almost unfazed by it. “I dunno.” Louis replies, looking back at Harry, who simply shrugs, trying to hide the blush slowly rising on his cheeks.

“Well anyways, I got some big news, I need everyone here.” Paul states, before turning back in the bus and shouting, “I need everyone in the main room!”

One by one, the occupants start to fill the room up: Lou waltzes in with Josh, their drummer, who’s carrying Lux, who seems to be radiating energy for someone who was supposed to be sleeping. Liam walks into the room with Zayn in tow, who looks rather displeased to be there. Simon, who had been up at the front of the bus, jogs in, looking confused as the meeting ahead wasn’t planned. “What’s going on?” His voice booms, filling the room.

With everyone’s attention on Paul, he starts speaking. “I’ve just been informed by Eleanor that there has been an outbreak of some sort. The concert tonight has been cancelled, and the tour has been postponed until this has passed over, for safety reasons.”

Everyone in the room breaks into quiet murmuring of confusion and concern. Harry sees Louis turn to him, worried. “What’s going on? Do you think Eleanor is okay?” He asks, and a strange pang of jealousy hits Harry’s heart.

“I… Don’t know.” Harry says, looking back at Paul for any further instructions.

Paul continues. “I’ve already informed the driver to take us to the nearest airport, only about an hour away, and then we’re on the first plane back to London.”

“What?” Simon says aloud, his voice laced with confusion and anger. He walks over to Paul. “This wasn’t part of the plan, Paul. Do you realise how much time and money it will take to reschedule and refund tickets that have already been bought?!”

Paul simply shrugs. “Not my call.”

Simon growls in frustration, storming out of the room. Everyone starts to panic slightly now, desperately trying to find out the cause of everything. From across the room, Harry locks eyes with Liam, who returns the look of confusion and worry that Harry is feeling right now. Just what is going on?

*

When they arrive at the airport, Harry steps off and is surprised to see the amount of people bustling inside. He’s quickly snapped out of his thoughts though when he playfully shoved by Niall, who’s laughing.

“Move it, slowpoke, people are coming out!” Niall giggles out, before stopping and surveying their situation at the airport. “Woah, why are there so many people here?”

“I don’t know.” Harry simply responds.

“You’d think with an outbreak, people would stay inside.” Zayn says grumpily as he steps out of the bus with Liam. Harry doesn’t know if Zayn is mad because he knows they have to go through all those people, or simply because he had to actually get out of bed. Maybe both.

After what feels like an hour, Harry and the others are finally able to get to the front desk, where a golden blonde haired woman is stationed, a sweet smile playing on her red lips. Her name tag reads, ‘Jackie.’ “Hello, what can I do for you today?” She seems not to recognise any of them, which is a slight relief in Harry’s eyes.

“Hi, we’re here under the Modest Management, which informed me we had a flight already planned for us?” Paul informs her, and her eyes flicker down to her computer in front of her.

“Let me look for your flight and I’ll hand you your tickets.” Jackie cheerfully replies, scanning the computer in front of her. Meanwhile, Harry hears Liam and Zayn talking behind him.

“Zee, are you okay?” Liam asks.

“M’fine.” Zayn replies monotonically.

“Oh. Okay.” Liam says awkwardly, a silence filling out between that and his next sentence. “Well, um, if you ever want to talk, I just want you to know that-”

“Yeah, you’re here for me. Got it.” Zayn snaps rather harshly. Harry almost whips around and scolds Zayn for his behaviour, hurting Liam’s feelings, who was simply trying to help, when he hears Jackie tell Paul, “Oh, there you all are! Alright then, here are your tickets.” Harry watches the lady hand Paul their tickets. “Now you all enjoy your flight-”

“Grab him! Get him out!”

Harry startles and turns back to see two security guards, a lady and a man, escorting a guy out of the airport. The guy is struggling in their grip, growling at them. This guy is definitely crazy, Harry thinks, when he catches a glimpse of the guy. His skin is sickly pale, as if though he was dead, though he was obviously still alive. He’s bloody around his neck area, dried blood splattered across his skin. And his eyes, they’re completely lifeless, a horrifying gray color.

The guy suddenly is able to get out of the guard’s grip, turning and biting hard on the other guard’s arm as she screams out in pain. The other guard jumps on the guy, prying him off of the girl, but his plan backfires, when they both fall on the floor, and after a short scuffle, he’s bitten in the cheek. Harry watches in absolute terror as this insane guy rips the flesh off of the screaming guard’s cheek, blood spurting out of his wound. And in a snap, the entire airport devolves into chaos. People scream, running from where they were out of the airport, some further into the airport. More people like the crazy guy start stumbling into the main area, some from further inside the establishment, which others enter through the entrance of the building, but Harry knows they’re all just like the guy from their dead skin and lifeless eyes. And then they attack.

“Everyone, follow me, quickly!” Harry registers Paul shouting out, before he follows Paul, everyone running further into the airport, following signs to where the planes are. Harry looks behind him, finding Louis running just a bit behind where he is. Harry slows down a bit before grabbing Louis’ arm, startling him a bit before realising it’s just Harry. Harry drags Louis closer to him, saying into his ear, “Stay close to me.” Harry looks into Louis’ piercing blue eyes as he nods, and Harry swears he could see a blush start to rise on his cheeks. But there’s no time for that now. Harry starts running with Louis in tow, catching up to the group.

As they run through the airport, Harry surveys the area around them. Chaos is on every corner. A woman rips through the stomach of a bloody guy, laying on the floor. A group of people take down another guy who’s trying to fight back, swinging his suitcase at them before unfortunately being taken down to the group.

Harry is startled by an especially loud scream and he looks ahead. His face drains of color as he watches one of those crazy guys grabbing Lou’s arm, who is carrying Lux, attempting to sink his teeth into her arm.

“No! Stop!” Lou screams. “Let go of me!” Paul quickly jumps into action, grabbing a crying Lux from Lou to safety as Zayn and Josh run over to help Lou get the guy off of her. Harry feels Louis start to move from Harry’s side.

“Louis, where are you going?” Harry asks.

“To help.” Louis replies, looking at Harry. “Come on, go help Lou, I’ll get Lux.”

Harry complies to what Louis told him, rushing over to where Lou is, struggling to get away and Zayn pulls her towards him and Josh kicks the guy to the floor. Harry tries to jump in, but before he knows it, Zayn and Josh are able to get the guy’s grip off of Lou. Soon after, the guy springs back up, shoving Josh away and heads right over to Harry.

Harry yelps, trying to avoid him, but he isn’t fast enough as the man knocks Harry to the ground. Harry can barely register Louis’ voice screaming out his name, since he’s too occupied crawling away from the guy. The man, blood oozing from his mouth, gets up and limps over to Harry, toppling on top of him. Harry holds his hands out, catching the guy and holding him away, trying to avoid being bitten by this man, but he keeps growing closer, and before he knows it-

The man suddenly flies to the side, and Harry looks over to see Liam had kicked the man off of Harry. “Come on, let’s go!” Liam yells at him, holding out his hand, and Harry grabs it. Liam helps Harry up and they regroup with Niall, Lou, Simon, and-

Louis isn’t there. Louis is missing.

“Where’s Louis?” Harry asks, but no one responds. “Where’s Louis?!” He yells out.

“We don’t know!” Simon yells back at him, furious as always for whatever reason. “Half of us got separated.

Harry takes a moment to look over the group and realises Simon is right. Liam is standing on his own, Zayn missing from his side. Lou is crying and screaming for Lux, who isn’t there. Paul and Josh are gone too. They probably just got separated and are safe, Harry tries to reason, but the little voice in the back of his head can’t help but voice his dark fear, what if they’re…

“We don’t have time!” Niall says. “We can find everyone after this blows over, but we need to get to safety.” Niall turns to Simon, who’s struggling to hold Lou back from doing anything irrational. “What do we do?”

It seems as if Simon is torn between what to do, just like the rest of them, but then his expression hardens, and he turns to their small group. “Everyone, follow me!” Simon yells, and he runs further into the airport.

They waste no time, following Simon through the hallway of absolute chaos and destruction. Soon enough, they find themselves at the doorway to…

“Wait!” Harry breathes out, trying to catch his breath. “Wait, stop!”

Everyone stops as Simon turns around to face him angrily. “What?!” He yells, annoyed.

“This… This is the door to our flight!” Harry states.

“Yeah, I’m getting you all out of here! Your welcome!”

“Harry is about to protest, but Liam beats him to it. “No!” He yells, and Simon nearly does a double take.

“What do you mean?! Yes! I’m saving your asses right now!” Simon yells at Liam.

“I don’t care. We’re not leaving without our friends!” Liam states.

Simon looks as he’s about to protest, but he shuts his mouth as he sees Harry cross his arms, and Lou screaming out that she won’t leave Lux, and Niall just glares at him. Seeing as he’s outnumbered, Simon sighs heavily. “Fine then. We’ll get out of here and I’ll text Paul where we are when we’re safe. But we’re leaving. Now.” Simon demands, ushering them all out the emergency exit door. And though Harry would have prefered to stay and find the others, he would take this for now.

When they step outside, it isn’t looking any better than the airport. There are bodies littered across the streets as bloodied people roam around, attacking everyone who tries running. Simon spots a car with the keys left on the passenger seat and points to it. “There!” He says, rushing over to it, trying to open the door only to find it’s locked.

“What? That’s not our car!” Liam protests.

Simon ignores Liam in favor of grabbing a rock from off the floor of the street and throwing it against the car’s window, smashing it into hundreds of pieces. Simon reaches inside and grabs the keys, unlocking the car as Liam stands shocked.

“What are you doing?! That isn’t our car!” Liam tries to protest once again.

“I don’t care!” Simon shouts in his face, getting into the driver’s seat. Lou runs to the car’s passenger door as Niall and Harry climb into the backseat, dragging with them.

As Simon starts the car, Harry can’t help but ask, “Where are we going?”

Simon looks in the rearview mirror, locking eyes with Harry as he simply and calmly states, “The hell away from here.”

And right now, not only is Harry scared about their situation, but he has also never been so scared about the well being of his other friends.

*

Zayn’s feet are absolutely killing him as he follows Paul, who’s carrying Lux, further into this dreaded airport.

“Guys!” Zayn hears, and turns to see Josh, who is stopping Louis just behind him from running. “Over here, we might be safe!” He points down a hall, where a couple of staff only doors are positioned. Zayn starts running over to Josh with Paul and Lux because obviously, this is a great idea, hide out until this is over, but he’s stopped when he sees Louis leave Josh’s side, running into the chaos.

“Oi, Louis! What are you doing?!” Zayn shouts after him. Louis ignores him, instead running over to a blonde lady on the floor, the lady that gave them their tickets, who he remembers as ‘Jackie’, and who currently has another woman on top of her. Louis runs and kneels next to her, trying to shove the lady on top of her off, but he isn’t able to stop the lady as she sinks her teeth into Jackie’s neck. Jackie lets out an absolutely blood-curdling scream and Louis pushes the lady off of Jackie, taking a chunk of Jackie’s flesh with her. Louis says something to Jackie that Zayn can’t hear, and he helps her up, directing her over to where the group is waiting for him. Zayn runs over to him, helping Louis take Jackie into the staff room.

“Louis, what are you thinking?! You can’t just run off like that!” Zayn scolds, but Louis just shoots him an icy glare.

“She was gonna die. I had to help, no one else was going to.” Louis states, before directing a cold statement to Zayn’s face. “At least not you, anyways.”

And that made Zayn falter as his blood ran cold. Why did that hurt so much? And why did that come from Louis, from all people? He had no time to dwell on it as they brought Jackie in the room and laid her down on the floor as Josh closed and locked the door.

The staff room was an absolute mess. There were blood stains all over the pastel walls, the couch had been ripped up, decorative plants were knocked over, and the coffee table below the TV playing static was toppled over, it’s legs exposed. Louis quickly grabbed a piece of cloth discarded on the floor and placed it over Jackie’s bloody neck wound, applying pressure to it.

“Stay with us, okay? Can you hear what I’m telling you?” Louis asks her, but Jackie doesn’t respond, her mouth gurgling with blood. Zayn and Josh simply look on, not knowing how to help, and Paul turns away to keep Lux from watching.

“Shit, her pulse is slowing.” Louis says as he feels her arm, and tries talking to her and he applies more pressure to the wound. But as Zayn kinda predicted, it goes to vain as fairly soon after, Jackie’s eyes close, and Zayn sees her stomach stop going up and down. She had died from her wound.

“Oh, fuck.” Louis mutters, before stepping away. Zayn can see the tears filling Louis’ eyes from where he is standing and rushes over to Louis, attempting to wrap him in a comforting hug. Louis tries to push against Zayn but Zayn doesn’t let go, and eventually leans into the hug, silently sobbing against Zayn’s chest. “It’s okay, you’re fine.” Zayn soothes.

“I-I tried to save her, and I couldn’t.” Louis mumbles, his voice wavering. “I failed her.”

“No you didn’t, you did your best.” Zayn assures, rubbing circles around Louis’ back comfortingly. Zayn looks back at where Josh and Paul are standing, pity in their eyes for Louis as Jackie groans.

Wait.

It seems Louis heard it too, as he whips his head around to where Jackie is. Her eyelids flutter open as she lets out another raspy groan. Louis quickly extracts himself from Zayn’s arms and crawls to Jackie. “Oh my god, she’s still alive!” Louis exclaims, a slight smile of relief playing on his lips at a second attempt to save the poor girl. “Oh god, can you hear me? Are you okay?”

Jackie starts to weakly lift herself off the ground, strangely growling, as Louis places his head to Jackie’s forehead. “She’s burning up!” Louis states, turning to Josh. “Is there water somewhere over there?” Josh shrugs, but looks for water in cupboards as Louis turns back to Jackie, gently pushing her down. “No, you need to stay lying down, trust me.”

But Jackie doesn’t listen. Instead, she fights against Louis, now sitting up completely. Her eyes, now gray and dead instead of the warm hazel tone they had, look around the room, landing on Louis.

And then she attacks. Jackie grabs Louis’ shoulders, raspily growling at him as she pushes him to the floor, climbing on top of him, chomping her teeth at him. “Hey, stop! What are you doing!” Louis shouts.

Zayn runs over to the scene, with Josh just behind him, as they try prying Jackie off of Louis. “Hey, get off him!” Zayn shouts at her, but she doesn’t listen. She only gets off of Louis when Paul puts down Lux, who’s now crying again, and roughly pushes Jackie off of Zayn’s bandmate. Zayn helps Louis up off the ground as Josh and Paul restrain Jackie. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” Zayn asks Louis worryingly.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just…” Louis trails off as he looks right past Zayn. Zayn turns around, watching as Jackie gets out of Josh’s grip, and tries grabbing at Zayn and Louis, though Paul is stopping her from actually getting to them.

“Get away!” Zayn yells, kicking Jackie right in the stomach and sending her falling backwards (His mum would be disappointed he hurt a girl, but at this point, he didn’t really have much choice) as he turns back to Louis, prepared to ask more questions.

But when he hears a crunch and squelching noise behind him, his blood runs cold as his face goes pale. Scared to see the damage, Zayn slowly turns his head around, eyes widening at the scene before him.

It seems he kicked Jackie pretty far, as she had fallen back onto the toppled over coffee table, as one leg of the table has pierced right through her stomach, and the other directly through her head. She didn’t move. Though obviously she didn’t.

Zayn felt his breathing picking up, and he couldn’t pry his eyes away. Oh god. He just killed that lady.

“Zayn!” Louis says. “Zayn, it’s okay!”

Zayn suddenly feels dizzy and weak, and he falls to the floor in shock. Louis kneels at his side, hugging him now, but Zayn just couldn’t bring himself to talk. He’s a murderer. A monster. The girl was probably just panicked or sick in the head or something, and instead of trying to help, Zayn just killed her.

Louis tries to comfort Zayn as Josh comes to his other side, and Paul goes back to Lux but right now Zayn doesn’t want Josh. Zayn doesn’t want Louis.

Zayn just wants Liam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's get a couple things straight:  
> \- I don't know how airports work  
> \- I also don't know how love works, but that's okay cuz these boys don't either lol
> 
> Any ciritism is welcomed, so if I did something wrong, or right, let me know. Anyways, again I really hope you did enjoy reading and I might write more if people do like this!


	2. Chapter 2 - Always Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn, Louis, Josh, Lux and Paul encounter two survivors who let them live in exchange for their help.

It’s been hours, maybe. Could have even been a day. Scratch that, it’s most definitely been a few days. At this point, Louis can’t even keep track anymore. They’ve been hiding out in this damned staff room since this whole thing started. Louis has been keeping close to the door, trying to hear any commotion or any sign that could let them know it was safe to come out. He was waiting for some kind of government officials, or police, or just someone. But no one ever came.

Louis turns back to look at the group. Zayn has been in some shocked, almost comatose state after killing Jackie, which is understandable. Louis would never be able to kill another person, so the fact that Zayn had (Accidentally, of course) probably shook him to the core. Josh and Paul had been taking turns alternating between watching Lux, who was just barely on the edge of crying again, and checking in with Louis and Zayn, both of the boys scared, shocked, and most importantly, missing the other members of their band.

Louis sighs, making his way away from the door and crawling over to Zayn, who’s sitting on the floor, almost in the same position he had been since they came in the room. Louis finds a spot next to Zayn and sits next to him. He lets out a sigh, sitting in silence for a few beats, before turning to Zayn.

“Was it us?”

Zayn, for the first time, turns and locks eyes with Louis, his warm brown eyes flashing confusion as his brows furrow. “What?” Zayn asks.

“Was it us?” Louis reiterated. “That made you want to leave? “

Zayn just stares at him for a brief moment, before turning back, looking directly ahead of him at the wall. The two boys sit in silence for a few moments again. Just when Louis thinks he isn’t about to get an answer, and gets ready to just go back to his post by the door, Zayn speaks from beside him.

“No.” Louis glances at Zayn again, but he doesn’t look at Louis, continuing to stare straight ahead as he talks. “This whole thing was just toxic. We had no input on things. We had no say in what music we wanted to do.” Zayn shifts a little in his spot. “Lou, you can’t tell me that you’re actually happy with what we’re putting out, are you?”

Louis continues to just stare at Zayn, taking in what Zayn had just told him. He couldn’t say that he was wrong. Louis wrote a lot of their songs, the lyrics coming straight from his heart onto paper, and it’s true that Louis enjoyed that part of the process. But management is convinced that their audience just wants the typical mainstream pop songs, and turns these well crafted and meaningful songs that Louis cares so deeply about into overplayed radio songs that nobody tends to care about. Louis sighs again, turning back and staring ahead, knowing that Zayn especially had been in the frontlines, fighting for their freedom to write what they want.

“I’m sorry.” Louis hears himself mumble, and Zayn’s eyes briefly flicker to Louis. “For what I said to you. About you not saving people.” Louis turns his head to face Zayn, and Zayn does the same. “I know you would. If the time came, and someone you cared about was in danger. I doubt you would let them die. So I’m sorry.” Louis relents. Zayn looks at Louis, not speaking for a beat too long (Zayn tends to do that).

“It’s okay.” Zayn finally replies, slowly nodding, and Louis feels a strange relief, as if this built up tension has left his body. “And I’m sorry. For making you feel like it was your guys’ fault for me wanting to leave.”

“Nah, mate. It’s fine.” Louis says, waving his hand dismissively. “I don’t know how you lot put up with me sometimes. I’m surprised you haven’t left sooner.” Louis laughs, and Zayn joins him.

“Yeah, you are a bit of a tosser at times.” Zayn lightly teases, amusement flashing in his eyes, before his smile fades. Zayn lets his head roll back as he sighs. “If I made you think that, about it being your fault, I can’t imagine what Liam feels like.” Zayn rubs his temple, almost as if trying to soothe a headache. “God, what am I gonna say to him?”

Louis opens his mouth to reply, but he’s caught off by Josh suddenly speaking aloud to the others. “It’s quiet outside.” Josh says, catching the attention of everyone. Paul walks over to where Josh is by the door, and quietly cracks open the door, peeking outside. He closes the door again, and whispers to the others, “It’s clear. No one is outside. I think if we hurry we can get out of here and out of the city.”

Louis nods in agreement, standing up to get ready to go, before turning back to where Zayn is, still sitting on the floor watching Louis. Louis extends a hand out for Zayn to take, a small smile playing on the edge of his lips. “All good?” Louis asks.

And Zayn smiles back at Louis, easily taking his hand as Louis helps Zayn off the ground. “All good.” Zayn replies.

Louis is the first one to quietly walk out the door, turning his head to both sides. The main power of the airport seems to have cut out, so the hallways are a bit darker. The floors are littered with discarded papers, belongings, and splattered blood everywhere, looking almost like some stereotypical horror movie. Expect it wasn’t. This is real life. This is what they’re all going through right now. Louis steps out into the hallway, followed by Zayn, then Josh who’s carrying Lux, and finally Paul. As soon as they’re all out, Paul steps to the front, silently nominating himself to lead everyone out of the airport. They all quietly yet quickly walk through the airport, no signs of life anywhere. The thought of their predicament scares Louis. How would they know if, or when, someone would go crazy like the others? Is there a way to avoid it? And is there a cure for any of it?

Louis must’ve been spacing out for quite some time, because by the time he zoned back in, they were already approaching the front doors to the airport. It was eerie how empty the entire place was, if you didn’t count some of the dead bodies on the floor. The sight made Louis want to gag. There were literal bodies scattered across the floor, people who were alive and breathing, with their own thoughts and feelings just hours ago. Paul opens the door, and holds it open as Louis, Zayn, Josh and Lux step through.

The city wasn’t in any better condition. It was totally empty, again not a single sign of life in sight. Cars were left in the streets, crashed, windows broken, completely totaled.

“The sun is starting to go down, so we need to find shelter fast.” Paul points out, as they continue to walk along through the city streets. They didn’t walk too far before hearing the sounds of what sounded like people mumbling incoherently, coming from just on the other side of a building they were standing in front of.

“Hey, Paul.” Louis whispers, and Paul hums to indicate he heard him. “Do you think we should see if there are people over there that can help?”

“I don’t know, Louis. They could be insane like the others.” Paul notes.

“Oh, I know. I’m not saying we barge into the crowd blindly.” Louis explains. “We can just quietly sneak up on them and see how they act. Then we can determine if it’s safe from there.”

Paul thinks about it for a moment, before nodding at Louis, seemingly going with Louis’ plan. The group slowly make their way around the large building, down the dirty sidewalk. They reach the back of the building and-

The crowd was a lot closer than Louis realised. The second thing Louis notes is that they are definitely not normal people. All their clothes are tattered, they’re covered in blood, bite wounds everywhere on their bodies. And they’re all staring directly at the small, helpless group with cold eyes.

“Run.” Paul barely breathes out to the group before the large group of people break into a fast paced walk, growling and baring teeth to them. Louis quickly turns on his heel and quickly sprints the other direction, down the street, with the others right behind him. They reach the end of the street, and Louis is thinking to probably just go back to the airport and hole themselves back up in one of the rooms, but to his horror, he finds the area they had just adventured through was now littered in the same kinds of people that were currently chasing them.

“Shit!” Louis hears Zayn curse out from beside him, and they all turn, watching as the horde of people start to close in on them. “We’re cornered!”

Louis can feel his breath picking up as he watches the space between them and the crazies slowly close in. Louis shuts his eyes tightly. Are they gonna end up just like the people at the airport, ripped to shreds and eaten alive? Would they spare any of them, or just eat all of them with no mercy? Zayn, Josh, Paul, even little Lux?

“Hey! This way!”

Louis’ eyes quickly flutter open and he searches for where the unfamiliar voice came from, his eyes landing on a man with brown eyes and black hair, quickly flagging the others down to his location, before running into one of the buildings, holding the door open for them. Louis wastes no time running over to the man, the others following closely behind his steps. Soon enough, all of them have run right into the building, and the man closes the door behind them, beginning to barricade it with any items nearby as the horde begins to bang on the doors and windows.

Louis turns to thank the man, but only gets to open his mouth before he is grabbed and roughly shoved against a wall, pinned to it by another man with graying hair as he holds a gun right to his head.

“Hey, hey! What the fuck!” Zayn yells, running over to the man with the gun. But the guy only responds by tightening his grip on the trigger.

“Don’t come any closer, or I won’t hesitate to blow this motherfucker’s brains out.” The guy mutters, maintaining a menacing stare at Louis, who is currently about to piss himself from fear. The guy turns his head to where the guy who saved them stands, in front of the doors of the building. “Ben, what the hell were you thinking?! We don’t know these fuckers!”

“What does it matter?” The guy, Ben, yells back. “Declan, They could’ve died out there! They have a kid with them!”

“So? They could’ve bought us time, but now that your dumbass brought them in here, we are currently trapped in here if you couldn’t fucking tell!”

“Please don’t shoot me.” Louis whimpers under his breath, and the guy with the gun (Who Louis thinks his name is Declan) whips his head back to Louis, icily glaring at him. “We just want to get back to our friends. If you just let us be, we’ll be on our way, I promise.” Louis pleads, hoping the guy doesn’t pull that dreadful trigger.

“Nah, you brought this mess to us… You’re gonna help us out of it.” Declan says, and thankfully, he releases his grip on Louis, retrieving the gun from his forehead, and Louis finally breathes, unknowingly holding his breath. Zayn runs over to Louis to check if he is alright and Paul and Josh survey the two men, keeping Lux protected from danger. Louis watches nervously as Ben pulls Declan aside, seemingly getting into some heated argument, though they keep their voices down to whispers so that the others aren’t able to hear them.

Louis, deciding it’s better to stick together, walks over to where Paul, Lux, and Josh are standing, making sure Zayn is close by. Josh catches Louis’ eye and leans in, whispering into his ear. “What do you suppose they’re on about?” Josh asks.

“Hopefully about letting us go.” Louis mutters, eyes trained on the two men.

Josh seems to have more to say, but whatever it was is cut off when the two men walk back over to them. Ben opens his mouth to speak, but Declan beats him to it. “Okay, look. We have a camp just on the outskirts of town. There might be people you know there, but it isn’t certain.” Declan explains. “If you help us, we’ll bring you back with us.”

Louis scrunches his face up, not sure if he wants to go with the person that had a gun to his face just moments ago, but Paul steps in front of everyone. “Yeah, sounds good.” Paul agrees, ignoring Louis’ glare. “What do we do?”

Declan looks at Ben, allowing him to do some talking now. “Uh, come with me.” Ben says, and starts walking up the stairs of the building. Everyone looks around at each other, a little unsure of what to do, but seeing as they really have no choice, they follow Ben’s lead, walking up a long and rather treacherous flight of stairs. Eventually they reach the very top, where Ben opens the door to reveal the rooftop of the building. The group carefully follows Ben onto the rooftop, where he leads them to the edge of the roof, surveying the whole city from it. Ben starts explaining and gesturing. “So basically, as you know, the world has gone to shit, so it’s been kinda hard to find supplies.” Ben says. “So the reason me and Dec have come to the city is to pick up supplies for our group. See that pharmacy over there?” Ben points to a small little pharmacy at the end of the street they’re on. “It’s a dinky little store, alright, but it has pretty much everything we need. Food, medical stuff, weapons, all that jazz. We basically need to get to the pharmacy, grab as much as we can, and then get out of the city back to our camp.” Ben looks back at the group. “Without, y’know, being ripped apart by walkers.” Ben chuckles out, humourlessly.

“Walkers?” Zayn questions from beside Louis.

“Yeah. Walkers, geeks, biters. Whatever your preference to call those things down there is.”

“Those are people.” Louis states.

Declan steps up from behind the group, grabbing his gun. “Damn, y’all really haven’t been up to date, huh?” He remarks, before pointing his gun at the crowd. “No, they aren’t. Watch this.”

Louis watches in horror as Declan begins shooting one of the people, a poor teen, straight in the chest, and right in the heart. But just as Louis is about to say something, he notices that… The teen didn’t go down. He kept on walking, kept banging against the building.

Zayn, on the other hand, seems not to have noticed, turning to Declan, horrified. “What the hell, man?!” He hissed out.

“No, Zee, look.” Louis says, turning Zayn’s attention back to the boy. “He shot that kid straight in the chest, in the heart, probably in some fatal organs. Look, he’s still up and moving.”

“But how?” Zayn mutters.

“It’s cuz they’re dead.” Declan says, earning confused and slightly worried looks from everyone. “The dead seem to have come back.”

No one says anything for a moment. It’s Josh who breaks the silence. “So what’s the plan? How do you plan to get to the pharmacy?” He questions.

“Well, you’re gonna help us, obviously.” Declan states. “Otherwise I would’ve blown his brains out,” Declan points his gun at Louis. “And then force the rest of you out.”

“Right-o.” Louis softly remarks.

“Here’s the plan.” Ben says. “Half of us will go with me to the pharmacy, and the others will stay with Declan and protect the building.”

Declan nods, pointing a finger at the group. “By the way, I don’t believe I caught any of your names.”

“Um, ‘m Louis Tomlinson.” Louis introduces himself. “And that’s Zayn Malik, our drummer Josh, our bodyguard Paul, and Lux.” He follows by pointing at each individual in turn.

Declan raises an eyebrow. “What, got some kind of band going on?” He chuckles out.

Louis nods. “Yeah, and we’re looking for our-”

“Wasn’t serious.”

“Oh.”

Moving swiftly on, then.” Ben says, clasping his hands, letting out a small laugh to lighten the tension. “I’ll take the model, bodyguard, and drummer.” He gestures to Zayn, Paul and Josh. “And then ‘Louis Tomlinson’ and the little girl, obviously, will stay in here with Dec.”

“Sounds good.” Declan affirms, heading back to the stairwell. “Shall we start getting ready, then?” He asks over his shoulder, before heading down.

Everyone starts following him down to gear up. As they climb down the stairs, Zayn falls into step beside Louis, leaning into his ear with a smirk. “The model, huh?” Zayn tells Louis.

Louis rolls his eyes, smiling. “We get, everyone is attracted to you.” Louis teases, earning a laugh from Zayn. It was nice to banter a bit, especially since Louis was especially concerned about the well being of his friends in a few minutes.

*

When the radio in the center of the table placed in the grass field comes to life, the tall, long haired brunette woman is the first to reach it. She presses the button to radio in. “Hello? Ben? Declan?” The woman relays into the radio speaker.

The familiar, husky voice fills her ears through the speaker. “Hey Danielle, it’s Declan. Just radioing in our current situation.”

“Yeah, lay it on me.” Danielle says.

“We ran into this small little group who were running around like idiots in the street. I was gonna let ‘em be a distraction for the walkers but Ben insisted on helping them.” Declan recounts.

“It’s gonna be a bit of extra mouths to feed.” Danielle murmurs, deep in thought. “Are they trustworthy?”

“I think. Quite frankly, I don’t think they know what’s going on. They look like they just walked out of a photoshoot.” Danielle starts to laugh. “I’m serious!” Declan exclaims.

“No, I believe you.” Danielle giggles. “Anyways, did you get the supplies?”

“Nah, we’re about to. Fuckers led a bunch of them over to us, though. But we have a plan.” Declan replies.

“Alright. Well, stay safe and radio me if anything happens.” Danielle says, slightly worried.

“Got it.” And then the radio cuts out, indicating Declan is off to get the supplies. Danielle stands, crossing her arms and tilting her head back as she tries to calm herself down a bit. Even though they’ve all barely met each other, their group is like a close knit family for now, surviving together. Danielle isn’t too close to Ben or Declan, but it would still suck to see one of them, if not both, go down.

“All good?” A voice comes from behind Danielle, and an arm sneaks around her waist to hug her close. Danielle jumps, before recognizing the voice and sighing, leaning into the well-built man.

“God, Liam, don’t sneak up on me like that!” Danielle lightly scolds.

“Sorry, saw the opportunity and had to take it.” Liam laughs, pulling her close and lightly kisses her cheek.

“Yeah, got that from the Tommo, no doubt.” Danielle remarks. “And also, you do know that the world is basically ending? I know we had our little relationship as a publicity stunt, but you don’t have to keep acting like we’re actually a thing.”

“I like showing my friends affection.” Liam pouts at her, giving her puppy dog eyes. Danielle swats him away, laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. Go show your affection to Zayn.” She giggles, before realising what she said. Danielle’s eyes go wide, filling with regret as she looks at Liam, who is suddenly quiet. “Oh, Liam, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, it’s fine.” Liam assures, though quietly. “Just came out.”

“You know,” Danielle says. “He could still be out there somewhere.”

Liam shakes his head, sighing. “I don’t think so, Dani. We went back to that airport, remember? You were even there. The whole place was swamped with them, we literally had to retreat from the supply run.” Liam recounted. “I… I never saw them leave.”

Danielle sighs. “I’m sorry, Liam.” She pats his back, rubbing it reassuringly. “How’s Harry and Lou?”

“Not any better.” Liam replies. “Harry’s been an absolute mess without Louis, and Lou may as well just be in a coma with how shocked and in denial she is about Lux.”

Danielle pulls Liam into a long, tender hug. She continues rubbing his back to comfort him. “There’s always hope, Liam.” Danielle whispers into his ear. “There’s always hope.”

*

To say Zayn was absolutely bricking it was an understatement. But he couldn’t let anyone know that, obviously.

“You all ready?” Ben asks. Zayn nods along with Josh and Paul. “Let’s do it.” Ben says, before he opens the front door, bolting through the horde. Zayn follows closely behind Ben, followed by Josh and Paul. Behind them, Declan starts shooting the walkers down dead, clearing a small path for them.

Everything blurs together as Zayn runs through the horde like his life depended on it (because it did), but eventually, he’s running straight through the pharmacy doors. Ben shuts the door and locks it as soon as Josh and Paul get through.

“Alright, squad.” Ben says, smiling and giggling to himself at the word squad. “Grab a couple of the plastic bags from behind the counter, model.” Ben instructs, and Zayn does as he’s told, hopping over the counter and grabbing a good amount of bags. “Drummer, Bodyguard, we’re basically finding anything that’s somewhat valuable and put it in the bags.” Paul and Josh nod and begin to go through the store, picking up basically everything off the shelves and dumping it in the bag that Zayn has held open.

“Hey, why not just take the whole store then?” Zayn asks Ben, a slight humor in it.

Ben smiles at Zayn over his shoulder. “Great idea. Who wants to carry it?”

Zayn laughs, and they continue to work silently, grabbing and putting into the bags. Eventually, all the bags are filled to the brim with items.

“I think that’s all we’re getting.” Josh notes.

“Perfect, that’ll last us a good week or two.” Ben says, fists up in the air in victory. “Alright then, we’ll all take-””

Just at that moment, the lock on the door finally gives in, and walkers start to spill into the store. Zayn just stares, horrified, before he’s snapped out of his trance by Ben’s voice. “Back door, now! Grab bags and go!” Ben orders, grabbing the gun stashed in his back pocket and aiming at the walkers. He begins to shoot them down, straight in the head, drawing the attention to himself as Zayn, Josh and Paul start grabbing at the bags. Zayn is able to fit three bags in his grasp, before beginning to bolt out the door, following Josh and Paul, when he hears a shout.

“Shit, I’m out!” Ben yells. Zayn turns back into the pharmacy, watching in horror as the walkers begin to trap Ben, who is out of ammo, in the corner of the pharmacy. Zayn immediately drops his bags to the ground, ready to run over to where Ben is to try and save him, but Ben stops him when he sees it. “No! Go, run!” Ben shouts at Zayn, fighting back against the walkers with just his gun now, bashing it down on the walker’s heads to little effect. Zayn picks up his bags again, but he can’t bring himself to move as he watches Ben, the walkers now closing in on him. The walkers begin grabbing at Ben, and one of them manages to sink its rotten teeth into Ben’s arm as he screams in agony. Ben spares one last glance at Zayn, shouting, “Go!”

Just like that, Zayn witnesses as the walkers take down Ben, pinning him against the wall of the pharmacy as they begin to devour him, ripping the flesh off his neck, ripping his stomach apart, chomping down on his face, the face that had just been smiling in amusement to Zayn a few minutes ago.

Unable to help, Zayn just runs with bags in hand, knowing he isn’t able to grab the leftover bags that were supposed to be what Ben took.

*

Louis paces around impatiently in the building with Lux in his arms as the walkers outside seem to become increasingly aggravated. The second the others left, things became extremely silent and awkward, Louis’ only company being Declan, who everyone seems to forget had put a gun to his head, and Lux, who seems too busy quietly crying to pay any mind to Louis.

So when Louis hears a revving and roaring, his worrying becomes tenfold. Declan looks up from where he is sitting when he hears the sound, before looking at Louis, who looks back at him. “What the hell was that?” Declan asks, and Louis just shrugs. “Was that them?” Declan stands, impatiently trying to see through the windows covered by walkers.

Suddenly, the windows become cleared out as the walkers are plowed down to the ground by a yellow car, stopping just in front of the building. Louis and Declan take a step back. Out from the driver’s seat emerges Josh, who has Paul in the passenger seat, and Zayn and Ben presumably in the backseat.

“What the absolute hell?” Declan mutters, moreso to himself, and for once, Louis agrees with the man.

“Come on, hop in!” Josh yells, waving his hands wildly at the three. Declan and Louis, seeing no choice, run over to the car.

“I’m driving.” Declan immediately says as he approaches Josh.

“But-” Josh tries to argue, but Declan shuts him down. “You have absolutely no idea where the camp is. I’m driving.” Declan states.

Louis pats Josh’s back out of pity as he makes space for Josh to climb in the backseat, before handing him Lux, and then climbing in himself. As he closes the door and Declan starts to drive out the city, Louis immediately notices something.

“Hey, where’s Ben?” Louis asks. He sees Paul look out the window, Josh look down to the ground, and Zayn gives him a look that kind of confirms it.

“What? Is he not back there?” Declan asks, locking eyes with Zayn. Knowing what Zayn is insinuating, Declan widens his eyes in surprise, before it turns to a look of absolute fury.

They’re in for one hell of a car ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Chapter 2! It's about time to get the boys back together again by now, isn't it?
> 
> ~ L


	3. Chapter 3 - Outnumbered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone finally is reunited, but an uneasy tension is settled over the group; An important decision is made between the group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to add a little note here:  
> I am the only one writing and editing the story, so if you find any spelling errors or small inconsistencies, those are all on me, so I apologise in advance!

When Harry hears rustling coming from right outside his tent, the first thing that crosses his mind is that it’s a walker. And though he knows the walker will come in here, and Harry will kill it, just like every other one, there’s a small voice coming from the back of his head that’s saying, ‘finally, your chance to get out of this world.”

Harry knows that he has Liam and Niall with him, but the truth is, he doesn’t know how much more they can help him. Ever since Louis, along with Zayn, died, he knows that he’s just been a burden, but he can’t help it. Ever since X Factor, he’s always had a little crush on Louis. And since then, it’s only been growing. He can probably even safely say that he loved Louis. And to see the love of his life, slip out of his fingers, just like that.

Harry watches as the zipper to his tent unzips, and when it opens, Harry is surprised to see that it’s not a walker that comes into the tent, but Liam. Harry doesn’t say anything, just watches as Liam comes up to Harry, sitting down next to him.

Liam puts an arm around Harry, comfortingly. “Alright, mate?” Liam asks. Harry doesn’t respond or react, because he knows whatever comes out of his mouth would just be a lie. He’s at rock bottom, to be honest. A low point in life that he’s never reached before until now. Somehow, Liam seems to almost read his mind, and envelopes Harry in a large hug. “I’m really sorry. Losing someone as bright as Louis has taken a toll on all of us.”

Harry finally looks up, his eyes meeting Liam’s. “I know I’m being childish, Liam.” Harry sighs.

Liam’s eyebrow quirks up. “How do you mean?”

“Cuz we all lost someone.” Harry explains. “I lost Louis, which really sucks, of course. But I know that you lost Zayn too.” Liam looks almost taken back, and Harry chuckles slightly. “Don’t tell me that you and him didn’t have a thing going on between you two. But yeah, you lost him, Lou lost Lux. We all lost someone we cared about, yet you lot are all pulling your weight through this while I’m just here, sulking and crying about-”

“Don’t say that.” Liam says, almost reprimanding him. “You’re right, we all lost someone we cared about. But that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be feeling how you are. Everyone has different ways to cope. So don’t apologise for how you feel.” Liam assures. “Ever.”

Harry can’t help the small smile that crosses his face as he hugs Liam tighter. “Thanks, mate. I really needed that.” Harry mumbles.

“Anytime.” Liam responds, releasing his hold on Harry. “Ben and Dec should be back any moment now. Do you need anything?”

“Nah, I’m fine. Just a few more moments to myself.” Harry says, waving his hand dismissively.

“Okay. But you gotta come out later.” Liam states. “Niall is worried about you, as is Simon, Danielle and Eleanor. So come out and say hi to everyone every once in a while.” It seems as if Daddy Direction is once again coming out, Harry thinks.

“Eleanor.” Harry hisses out, as if it were a word he wasn’t supposed to say.

Liam just rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on Harry. You can’t blame the poor girl for falling for Louis.” Liam insists. “I mean, you clearly couldn’t help yourself either.” Harry feels a blush heating up his cheeks, and Liam smirks at that. “Anyways, we both know he probably didn’t reciprocate the feelings, so just try to be nice to her, okay?”

Harry doesn’t respond after that, just watches as Liam gets up from his spot and heads out of the tent, making sure to zip it back up, and leaves Harry alone with his thoughts. After a few moments, he hears a car approaching the camp. It’s probably Ben and Declan, so Harry should head out to see what they got. But right now, the silence is helping.

*

Declan shuts off the car’s power and turns back to face the others in the backseat. “I’m gonna head out and discuss with the others what to do with you all.” Declan explains, keeping a steady glare on them. “You should probably wait in here.”

Declan steps out of the car and shuts the door, and Louis can immediately hear voices outside. He turns over to where Zayn is sitting next to him, Lux sleeping peacefully on his lap.

“So how do you suppose we greet his friends?” Louis asks Zayn, who shrugs. “Hey, we kinda killed your friend back there, but we were hoping you can accept us?”

Zayn glares at Louis, before looking back down at Lux. “I don’t know. I guess we just act as we go. If we’re lucky they won’t kick us to the road.” Zayn replies, before leaning forward and gently shaking Lux, who begins to stir in her sleep. “ Hey Princess, it’s time to wake up.” Zayn murmurs quietly into Lux’s ear.

Louis sighs and looks to the ground, taking their situation in. They were about to meet the people who were friends with the guy that they accidentally helped kill. Louis truly doesn’t know what to think, except that he for sure doesn’t want a gun to his head again. He honestly doesn’t know what he would do if he were in that group’s shoes, except that he probably wouldn’t be very happy, so Louis shouldn’t expect a warm welcome. But still, they did help get supplies for their group, so that should amount to something, right?

“Lou.” Louis looks in the direction of where Josh’s voice had called him. “Whatever happens, we’ll still have each other. We’re sticking together, no matter what.” Josh assures.

“Yeah, we have each other’s backs.” Paul’s voice sounds from the passenger seat. “I know I can definitely crush a few skulls if anyone tries messing with us.” That earns a few laughs from everyone in the car. Louis looks back down and smiles, before a troubled expression takes over again. He appreciates the support from everyone, but he can’t help but wanting Harry right now, as selfish as it sounds.

Louis hears footsteps, and when he looks up he sees Declan approaching the car door right beside Louis. He opens the door, the breeze from the outside hitting Louis’ skin. “Alright, come on out. We’ll see what to do with you.” Declan says, before stepping aside, allowing Louis to climb out of the car. He turns around, letting Zayn pass him Lux, who he holds in his arms, watching Josh and Paul climbing out from the other side of the car from the corner of his eye as Zayn slides down the seat.

“Oh my god. _Oh my god _.”__

____

____

Louis eyes widen like saucers at the rather familiar voice, the one he’s positive that he’s heard since his career started, and whips around so fast that he could’ve snapped his neck, but he didn’t care. Standing right there, a gun slung over his shoulder, is none other than Liam Payne. Louis’ emotions are suddenly all getting the best of him, because oh my god, they finally found each other. Louis feels Lux pushing against him, and Louis places her down, just now noticing Lou who’s standing right next to Liam, her eyes wide and trained on Lux, before breaking out into a sprint, tears running down her eyes.

“Oh, Lux!” Lou shouts out, reaching Lux and hugging her tightly, falling to the floor as she tearily laughs in joy. “Oh my sweet darling.”

“Mommy!” Lux replies back, crying as she hugs the blonde woman.

“Oh, I love you so much, my baby.” Lou murmurs to Lux. “I swear I’ll never let you go again.”

And as much as Louis loved the reunion, he couldn’t stop his feet as they began to pound against the ground, running over to where his bandmate was standing with now open arms. Louis’ body hit Liam’s as he felt himself being enveloped in Liam’s hug, warmth spreading around him as he embraces the familiar smell of Liam’s cologne, still faintly there as if he had just put it on. “Oh, mate, I missed you so much.” Louis mumbles into Liam’s ear.

“Tell me about it.” Liam says, breathlessly laughing as Louis feels his tears hitting his skin. “I-I thought you were dead.”

Louis extracts himself from Liam, arms on each of his shoulders, making sure that Liam is now looking straight into Louis’ eyes. “I’m here now. And I’m not going down without a fight.” Louis smiles at him, and Liam beams right back at him.

Liam suddenly looks anxious, eyes flicking over to where the car is parked. “Wait, does that mean-”

“You know it.” Louis smirks at him, stepping aside so Liam can watch Zayn climbing out of the car, looking around at his surroundings in confusion before his gaze lands on where Liam is standing next to Louis. Louis watches Liam’s face break into the largest grin he has ever seen as he bolts to Zayn, who in turn runs to Liam as well. He watches Liam’s eyes leak tears down his face as Zayn whispers sweet nothings into his ear. Zayn rubs his back comfortingly as Liam grips his hold on Zayn even tighter, as if to make sure he wouldn’t leave his side ever again.

Louis hears a gasp behind him, and when he turns he’s met face to face with Eleanor, his girlfriend. A he flashes a smile as he walks up to her, hugging the still-shocked girl. “But- But how?” Eleanor barely whispers out. “Everyone was saying you…”

“I’m invincible.” Louis says, chuckling as he plants a kiss to Eleanor’s head. “I’m like a forever boy. I simply can’t die.”

Louis and Eleanor part from their hug, smiling at each other like idiots, before Louis proceeds to scan the area, landing on yet another familiar face that hasn’t seemed to notice him yet.

“Oi! Nialler!” Louis says, jogging up to the blonde lad as he spots Louis. He lets out a loud cheer as he embraces Louis.

“Louis, you can’t ever make us worry like that again.” Niall says as they both laugh. “Everybody was worried they’d never see you again.”

“Everyone?” Louis inquires, because no way. How do so many people seem to worry about little ol’ him.

“Well yeah, duh.” Niall says, looking at Louis as if he’s grown two heads. “You have your weird, special way of wiggling yourself into people’s lives.”

And that just makes Louis beam at nothing in particular. Louis hears a rustling behind him, but he doesn’t bother turning around until Niall looks back for him, a smirk suddenly forming on his face as he motions Louis to turn around. And when Louis does, the wind is nearly knocked out of him for some reason.

Standing right there, so close to him, yet too far away for comfort, is Harry. And for whatever reason, Louis just can’t seem to bring himself to move, just watching Harry with wide eyes as Harry stares at him back, his beautiful green eyes flashing a relieved look.

“Harry?”

“ _Louis _.”__

____

____

Harry runs up to Louis, faster than Louis’ ever seen him run, and Louis truly can’t do anything except stand there as his emotions take over, his eyes beginning to water. He was so worried he wouldn’t see Harry, especially how divided everything in the world was now. Yeah, he was worried about Liam and Niall, and everyone else on the team as well, but for some reason it was always Harry his mind first thought of, it was always Harry every thought came back to. It was just always Harry.

When Harry finally embraced Louis, he’s never felt so safe since the dead came back to life.

*

As night falls upon the camp, everyone sits around the firepit they had made. They had a lot of catching up to do, but right now, Liam was content with how he was, sitting comfortably in his chair with Zayn snuggled up right next to him. From beside him sits Danielle, who (attempts) to get the group singing cheerful songs to light up the mood (But no one ends up joining in). Instead, they’ve settled for going around and catching up with each other since the whole thing started, since it feels like there’s never been enough time.

“So, I have to ask.” Niall says from where he sits on the ground, opting to sit on it and giving his chair up for Josh, who he’s sitting next to. “What happened to you guys? Everyone was sure you all died. How’d you get out of there?”

“Well, we all hid out in this staff room for god knows how long.” Paul explains to the group. “We got out of the airport when everything seemed quiet, but I guess the same couldn’t be said for the city.”

“I’m assuming that’s when we ran into you.” Declan voices from his seat. He keeps a steady stare on Zayn, who squirms slightly in discomfort. Though Liam doesn’t appreciate the gesture, he supposes it’s understandable. Though he didn’t get the full details, all he knows is that Zayn was with Ben when they went on the supply run, and since Ben died, Declan hasn't been the happiest with the new arrivals. But Liam can disagree with that. He’s never been happier having all the boys here again.

“Well, what about you guys?” Louis says from in between Harry and Eleanor. “What happened to you guys after we got separated.”

“Well, Simon got us out.” Lou says, gesturing to where Simon is sat, before going back to cradling Lux.

Simon nods. “They were very stubborn about leaving on the plane without you all, so we just got out of the city, and ended up at this little camp here.” He explains.

Louis’ head perks up at that. “What did you say?” Louis asks, his tone conveying something that Liam’s never heard from Louis.

“That we ended up in the camp?” Simon says.

“No, you know exactly what you said.” Louis snaps. “Were you really about to leave us? To what, just figure out how to get back home on our own?” He’s now shifting away from Harry, much to his dismay, and stands up, arms crossed and glaring at Simon.

“Oh come on, don’t you start being dramatic again.” Simon sneered.

Louis scoffs, and Liam feels Zayn moving in his lap. Zayn sits up, now sharing the same look that Louis has on Simon.

“I don’t think he’s being dramatic.” Zayn says, jumping in defense of Louis. “I thought we were together in this team.” And then Zayn looks at Liam, and his expression makes Liam heart sink. His face is painted in betrayal, eyes wide in disbelief. “And you? Were you gonna leave too?”

Liam immediately starts shaking his head. “You think I would leave you, Zee?” Liam asks.

“Well I don’t know.” Zayn says, shaking his head. “I thought Simon would have our backs but apparently I don’t know anything about you all now.”

And Liam feels a little piece of his heart chip away at that. The thought that Zayn really thinks that Liam betrayed him and would actually think about leaving without him broke Liam’s soul.

“No, that’s not it at all!” Harry tries to reason, but Liam can already see the group dividing in two as Louis, Zayn, and Josh all slowly begin moving towards each other, leaving each boy’s side respectively, and almost isolating themselves from their group.

“Oh, come on, you all are being unreasonable.” Simon scoffs. “We didn’t leave you. We’re still here. If you had actually stayed with us though, we might have not had to stay here though.”

“Oh, so it’s our fault?” Liam hears Josh pipe up rather angrily from behind Louis.

“Okay, nothing is anyone’s fault!” Niall says.

Declan rises from his seat and begins to step forward to Zayn’s small group menacingly. “Okay, look. I don’t know what your guys’ problems are, but I hope you don’t plan on causing problems here.” Declan spits at them. “Cuz I can easily throw you all right back out and watch you get torn apart by walkers, one by one.”

“No! There’s no need for all this!” Liam says, standing up, but no one seems to pay him any attention.

“Yeah, you keep saying that, but if it weren’t for us, your ass would have been left for dead, just like Ben.” Zayn jabs at Declan. Declan’s eyes go wide, before filling with fury. He raises his fist and it comes down on Zayn, striking him in the face. Zayn recoils from the hit and falls, caught by Louis before he hits the ground. Shouting suddenly is started from both sides. Louis and Josh are now shouting at Declan, trying to fight back, as Declan tries to grab at Zayn again. From behind them, Paul rushes over and attempts to restrain Declan as Harry and Niall try to pull the boys away from Declan, but Louis pushes Harry away while Josh stays relatively unfazed by Niall’s attempts. Liam rushes over to where Zayn is, crouched on the floor, holding his face in pain with Louis’ hand on his shoulder.

“Zee! God, are you okay?” Liam asks worryingly, but Zayn begins to literally kick Liam away, growling at him like an animal. Liam’s never seen Zayn like this before, looking all but ready to strike at anyone who comes near, but he’s especially never seen the type of anger in Zayn’s eyes directed towards Liam. It’s not a good feeling.

“Enough!” A shriek pierces through the sky, and everyone stops to see the source of the sound. Danielle stands in front of them, a look of disappointment on her face. “I have no idea what’s gotten into you shitheads, but this needs to stop!” Danielle reprimands. She crosses her arms expectantly as everyone begins to back away from each other. Declan mouths something to Zayn that makes Zayn hands bunch into fists, but he backs away, Louis and Josh all holding each other, with Paul in front of them, protecting them from any danger. Liam and Harry also back away, and when Liam sneaks a glance at Harry, he looks absolutely devastated at Louis’ behaviour. Though Liam can’t say he’s really don’t any better with how Zayn was right now. “Maybe you all need to sleep this out, I don’t know. But I will not have this type of behaviour in our camp!” Danielle continues. She points at one of the empty tents near the outskirts of the forest. “Louis, Zayn, Josh and Paul. You all can take that tent for the night. We’ll talk about sleeping arrangements, as well as jobs and things for you all to do in the morning, but I won’t condone this kind of thing happening again, got it?” With that, Danielle stalks off back to her tent, Eleanor following behind her.

Everyone disperses after that, all going into their tents for the night. Liam sees that he, Harry and Niall are all still there, looking at the isolated group, still cowering from the others. Harry is the one to break the silence.

“Um, Lou, if you want, you can still sleep in my tent if you want.” Harry offers. “I don’t have anyone else-”

“No.” Louis cuts him off, refusing to look at Harry. Harry just sighs and begins walking back to his tent in defeat.

“Well, I was gonna offer the same to you, Zayn, if you wanted to… You know, sleep with me…” Liam trails off, and Zayn simply narrows his eyes at Liam, the answer loud and clear. Niall opens his mouth as if to say something, but promptly shuts it and walks away.

Liam’s the only one there now, and though he’s now walking away too, he continues to glance over his shoulder at the group. As soon as they think everyone’s left, he watches Louis immediately check over Zayn, and the way Zayn easily complies at Louis’ requests strikes Liam’s heart in the wrong way. Liam turns away, finally climbing into his tent, an empty spot next to him, where Zayn could’ve been.

God, what the hell was happening to them?

*

The sounds of birds chirping is what awakens Niall, eyes fluttering open as he takes in his surroundings.

He’s currently in Harry’s tent. After what happened last night, Harry had been upset about Louis especially, so Niall offered to stay with him the night and keep him company, to which Harry agreed. But looking around now, it seems Harry has woken up before Niall.

Niall steps out of the tent and takes in his surroundings. It seems he woke up a bit later than he’s used to, because everyone is already out and about, doing the daily chores. As he walks along, he hears Eleanor and Danielle’s conversation about maybe going out and catching some fish to feed everyone for dinner. He sees Lou carrying Lux as she does the laundry, looking happier than she’s ever been since they got here. More interestingly, though, over by the large RV that belongs to Declan, he sees an animated conversation between Dec, Simon, Paul and Josh. It doesn’t look pretty, as Simon is talking harshly to the two men and Declan is giving them his typical glare. Paul is talking right back to Simon, gesturing to everyone as his eyebrows furry together in anger, and Josh stands there, his arms crossed. He looks rather unhappy, but doesn’t seem to really engage in the conversation. Niall decides to jog up to Josh, catching his attention as he approaches. “Hey, Josh.” Niall beams happily, but he only gets a side glance from Josh as a response. “What’s going on?” He asks.

Josh turns to face Niall. “Why don’t you tell me?” He says, his voice kept low and steady.

“What are you talking about?” Niall asks. “Why are you being so mean?”

“You want to throw us back out there, why would I be nice?” Josh responds, looking Niall up and down.

“No, we don’t!” Niall tries assuring, waving his hands. “We’re taking you guys in, right? Why would you think that?”

Josh simply watches Niall, studying him for a bit. Finally, he speaks again. “You don’t know what’s happening, do you?” Josh tells Niall.

“What? What’s happening?” Niall asks, confused.

Josh sighs before turning back to the other three who are arguing. He clears his throat loudly, grabbing their attention. “Sorry to cut in, but you were gonna make us go back to the city and you haven’t even told the rest of your people?” Josh asks Declan and Simon, smirking almost evilly as the two men notice Niall for the first time.

“Oh shit. Niall, what are you doing here?” Simon asks.

“What do you mean?” Niall asks Josh, and when Josh simply shrugs as a response, Niall turns to Simon. “What does he mean?” Niall asks, putting more emphasis on his question.

Declan sighs, rolling his eyes. “Fine. During the supply run, the newcomers left a couple of bags in the pharmacy.” Declan explains. “Those bags had valuable weapons that we needed. So, we’re sending them back to get the weapons. Then maybe we’ll consider letting them join us.”

Niall shakes his head, narrowing his eyes. “As far as I was concerned, they were already a part of the group. They’re not going anywhere.” Niall responds, seeing from the corner of his eye Paul and Josh giving him a small smile.

Declan throws his hands up in frustration as Simon stalks up to Niall. “You don’t understand. They left the bags in the pharmacy. They need to get them.” Simon tells Niall, before glancing at Paul and Josh with a smirk, as if almost to make sure they’re listening to the next part. “If we’re lucky, maybe they’ll die there too. Less mouths to feed then.” Niall just looks at Simon in disbelief, the thought of him actually letting the people they all worked together and pretty much grew up with die making Niall disgusted.

“No.” Niall hears from behind him, and he turns to see Liam and Harry standing there. Behind them, Niall sees Zayn and Louis begin to exit out of their tent due to all the commotion, simply watching from afar. “If you need someone to get those weapons, I’ll go.” Liam says. “But they’re not going.”

Simon scoffs. “And what? You expect me to believe that you can get those weapons back safely?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going alone.” Liam says, crossing his arms. “You’re coming with.” He points at Simon and Declan.

“I think the fuck not!” Simon yells at the same time Declan says, “I just put my life on the line out there, I’m not going!”

“Well isn’t that a shame.” Harry replies sleazily, eyes trained on the two raging men. “If you aren’t coming, then I guess you won’t be getting your precious weapons then.”

“That’s not how this works.” Declan replies. “How do you expect us to just go along with whatever plan you’re coming up with?”

“Because you’re outnumbered.” Now it’s Danielle who’s walking up to the group, lips curled into a frown. “You’re going.”

Simon’s eyes dart around as Declan tries to protest, but they see that they truly are outnumbered as everyone circles around them. Simon sighs in defeat. “Fine. But we’re not going alone. Who’s coming with?”

“I am.” Liam says. Niall pipes up behind him. “Me too.” He says, because he isn’t letting Liam go alone.

Paul and Josh look at each other, before shrugging. “I guess we’ll go too. We did leave the bags there, I suppose.” Paul says.

Declan scoffs. “Great, taking out half of our men. Who’s gonna protect our camp then?”

“I don’t think you get it, but we can defend ourselves just fine, you know.” Danielle says, crossing her arms. Eleanor glares from her side. “Yeah, we don’t need you men talking about us as if we're incapable.” She says.

Niall feels a smile coming on his face at the fact that everybody is coming together at this moment to protect everyone. It’s a beautiful moment.

“Me and Louis can go, too.”

The Yorkshire accent is unavoidable as Niall turns around to see Zayn and Louis cautiously walking towards the group. Niall sees Liam smile at them, before realising what Zayn said, and his smile immediately drops. “What? No, you just got here!” Liam says, running over to Zayn. He winces when Zayn flinches back. “I… You don’t have to go.”

“I don’t need you telling me whether to or not.” Zayn replies to Liam. His eyes are locked on Liam, studying him, but Niall notes how there’s no real malice in Zayn’s stare, just curiosity. Zayn then turns to everyone else. “I left the bags. I saw Ben die, and I could’ve grabbed them, but I didn’t. So I’m going.” Zayn declares.

“Fine by me.” Declan smirks, and Niall has to resist punching him in the face. Looks like same is going for Liam, who has his fists balled up.

“I’ll go, too.” Louis says, but Harry immediately pulls Louis aside, animated talking to him, though Niall can’t quite understand. Instead, he turns to Simon, his eyes trained into Simon’s eyes, as if he was almost glaring right into his soul.

“When did you want to leave then.” Niall says, and for the first time, he feels Simon slightly beginning to crumble under his gaze. And Niall has never felt more powerful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated writing the fight scene between all the boys ;-; but now that the tension is lifted, we can expect some resolution between them all now!
> 
> ~ L


End file.
